HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 22, 2024 – Whenever believers claim to want to be more like Jesus, I hope they mean that they want to have an intimate one-on-one relationship with God as their Father, because that’s the whole reason why Jesus offered himself as the sinless sacrifice in the first place. Adam once upon a time had an intimate one-on-one relationship with God, as did Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Samuel, and others. But as close as they were to God, they only knew him as their God; they didn’t know him as their Father. Jesus was the first to show us what it meant to know God as our Father.

Jesus wanted us (his followers) to have that same intimate relationship with God as he did. Jesus didn’t suffer everything he suffered just so that we’d run to the Bible whenever we wanted guidance or comfort or confirmation. No. Jesus suffered what he suffered so that we’d regain the ability to go to God ourselves, as his children, which God promised us through his prophets that we would be one day.

I’m taking the first steps towards learning Biblical Hebrew so I can read the Old Testament in the original language, or at least understand a few words here and there. My instructor is adamant that we need to learn Biblical Hebrew in order to really know what God said to his prophets, but I’m not convinced that you need to learn a language in order to know what God is saying. God can communicate with or without words, in every language or in none. I also firmly believe that if you want to know what God permits you to know, you just ask him. This ability to go directly to God is, as I mentioned, the whole reason why Jesus died – he was the perfect sinless sacrifice that wiped the sin record clean, and in so doing reconciled “whosoever will” to God. As born-again believers, to downplay or deny the supremacy of our profound privilege to go directly to God as our Father would be to downplay the supremacy of Jesus’ sacrifice. We must never do either of those things.

Who’s going to be closer to God – someone who has a one-on-one relationship with him, or someone who doesn’t have such a relationship but can read the OT in Biblical Hebrew? I’m not saying this to be flippant or arrogant but as a reminder that as born-again believers we do have this relationship, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, and that we can and should take advantage of it 24/7. God is always with us through his Spirit, guiding us, informing us, chiding us, cautioning us, and making us laugh. We should fall asleep whispering “Good night” to God and wake up yawning “Good morning” to him. Then we should spend the rest of our day consciously in his presence, regardless of what we’re doing.

It’s a hard thing to do, though, always being conscious of being in God’s presence. In fact, God’s made us so that we can’t do it; it’s impossible for us always to be conscious of God’s presence. Even if, as some Jews do, we attached physical reminders of God between our eyes and our hands, we’d still see past those reminders on occasion. Their purpose just wouldn’t register with us. God does this (makes it impossible for us always to be conscious of his presence) so that he can see us as we are when we’re just being ourselves. It’s an ongoing test, bearing in mind that all our spiritual tests are for our benefit. Whatever negative traits God sees in us in those moments when we’re not conscious of his presence, he later brings to our attention and helps us to overcome.

I don’t know if I’ll actually go forward with learning Biblical Hebrew. I’m listening to some recordings now and following along in the King James Bible. It’s fascinating how the cadence of the original Hebrew matches the cadence of the King James translation. I know almost none of the Hebrew words, but I can still keep track (that is, align the Hebrew with the English) by reading only the English, thanks mainly to the cadence.

And yes, God first revealed himself to the Hebrews speaking their language, but God has also revealed himself to me speaking my language (English with a Canadian accent). Is my relationship with God any less valid because we don’t communicate in Hebrew? I love hearing the Bible read in old Hebrew for no other reason than that it’s the Bible being read, but I don’t think the King James Version is any less accurate than the Hebrew Bible in relaying what God wants us to know. In any case, it’s God who reads to us, and God is multi-lingual as well as fluent in visions, dreams, drawing, pictograms, etc. As an FYI, the language of Heaven isn’t Hebrew. Heavenly language is not like anything on Earth, and we’ll only learn that language if and when we make it home.

God spoke to Moses and most of the prophets in Hebrew for the sole reason that it was their language. After the Babylonian exile, the dispersed remnant started to lose their Hebrew and adopted Aramaic instead, to the extent that some of the final books added to the Hebrew Bible are written in Aramaic. And, of course, we know that Jesus spoke Aramaic and likely preached and taught solely in Aramaic. Were his teachings any less valid because they weren’t given in Biblical Hebrew? Were Jesus’ conversations with God any less worthy because they weren’t conducted in Biblical Hebrew?

Speaking of Jesus’ words, I am not convinced that they weren’t recorded in Aramaic. We’ve been taught that the books in the New Testament were written in Greek (the lingua franca of the time, like English is the lingua franca of our time), but I can’t imagine that no-one was inspired to write down in Aramaic what Jesus said either as he was saying it or shortly thereafter. I can’t imagine that whole books weren’t written in Aramaic, quoting Jesus directly to preserve his words exactly as he spoke them. John, at the end of his Gospel, states that if everything Jesus did were written down, the entire world couldn’t hold the number of books such a feat would require. This indicates to me that there was a lot of writing about Jesus going on at that time. If that were the case (and I believe it is), most of the fruits of that writing frenzy appear to have been lost, either because they were destroyed or were hidden away, whether maliciously or for safekeeping. The writing that was hidden away may yet be revealed or found, like the scrolls found in the caves after WW2, some of which were written in Aramaic and languages other than Greek.

But even if nothing further comes to light, I believe the language used to convey God’s words doesn’t really matter. God created language as a tool and uses language as a tool. He spoke in Hebrew to those whose language was Hebrew, and he spoke in Aramaic to those whose language was Aramaic, and he speaks in Greek, and Latin, and French, and Chinese, and English, etc., to whosoever speaks those languages. Think of the Pentecost preaching at the beginning of Acts, when everyone present heard the Word being spoken in his own language, even though Peter was likely speaking Aramaic. This shows the power of God to miraculously simultaneously translate and convey whatever needs to be translated and conveyed. If he did it during Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, he can do it any time and any place, and I believe he still does it for us today even if we’re just reading the Bible in a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation.

Jesus lived a sinless life and then offered himself as a worthy sacrifice so that we’d finally be reconciled to God. We born-agains are honored and privileged to know God as our Father and to be able to communicate with him one-on-one whenever we want. The enormity of that privilege cannot be overstated. Mere words, being only tools, cannot either better effect or hinder our communication, whether those words be in ancient Hebrew or modern English or some other language, because we don’t necessarily need words to communicate with our Father. He’s a heart-reader, not a lip-reader, which means that words are optional, and which is why most of the OT prophets heard from God through visions and dreams. We, too, may have visions and dreams, if God gives them to us, but communicating with God can happen anytime and anywhere, without the need for ritual or for waiting on God. This is the greatest joy of my life and what constantly centers (and recenters) me in my Father.

 I hope it’s your greatest joy, too.